How This B2B Tech CMO grew to 60,000 LinkedIn Followers (Executive Thought Leadership Playbook)

Kyle Lacy is the CMO of Docebo, a publicly traded enterprise learning platform used by companies like Zoom, OpenTable, Dior, and Denny’s.

Before Docebo, he led marketing at Lessonly, Seismic, Salesforce, and Jellyfish, and he’s been publishing online since MySpace.

In this episode, Kyle breaks down what’s still true about personal branding in 2025, how executives should think about posting online, the mistakes leaders make when they worry too much about reach, and why story is the only thing that differentiates you.

We also talk about publishing as a discipline, how to turn meetings into content, the realities of being an exec at a public company, and why Ramp and Liquid Death are raising the bar for brand in B2B.

What You’ll Learn
- The one thing about personal branding that hasn’t changed since 2010
- How to create content as a busy executive
- Why reach doesn’t matter as much as people think
- The biggest mistakes executives make on LinkedIn
- How to use LinkedIn for internal communication
- When executive thought leadership becomes a marketing motion
- The best way to pick content topics

Perfect for founders, CMOs, and B2B leaders who want to:
- Build a real executive brand
- Understand how to post confidently without fear
- Turn daily work into high-performing content
- Enable your leadership team to publish consistently
- Use LinkedIn for recruiting, culture, and storytelling

Connect with Kyle:
Kyle’s Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kylelacy/
Docebo: https://www.docebo.com/
Revenue Diaries: https://www.therevenuediaries.com/

Connect with Me:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/
Website: https://www.project33.io/
Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/03CXzsZp7wdqIRVDcqPTFH


Chapters
00:00 Who is Kyle Lacy?
01:22 Writing one of the first personal branding books (in 2010)
03:30 What’s still true about personal branding
05:00 Story vs. generic content
07:00 How personal to get online
08:58 Why specific details make you relatable
10:22 How Kyle sees LinkedIn compared to other platforms
12:05 The truth about reach and algorithm changes
13:42 Kyle’s workflow: how he actually creates content
15:38 Posting daily as an executive
17:44 The Delta incident: how a single tweet almost got him fired
20:37 How executives should think about posting
22:38 Why building a network matters for every leader
23:58 Dealing with imposter syndrome vs. publishing fear
25:39 Do people assume you’re not working?
27:36 Evergreen vs. timely content
29:49 Using LinkedIn for internal communication
31:41 When executive thought leadership becomes a real marketing motion
33:54 Using audience trust for hiring
35:48 Which executives should post (and why some shouldn’t)
37:58 Themes and sub-themes: Kyle’s writing strategy
39:22 Hooks, structure, and intuition
40:49 Framework content vs. story content
42:00 Commenting, community, and consistency
44:38 Why Kyle wishes he started his newsletter earlier
46:15 Substack vs. Beehiiv
48:04 Kyle’s current tool stack
49:10 Brands inspiring him: Ramp, Liquid Death
50:37 Why good taste still wins